November 24, 2006

The Thumpin’

Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Jim Rutenberg wrote in the New York Times: "Mr. Bush, sounding alternately testy and conciliatory at a White House news conference, said he was 'obviously disappointed.' He portrayed the results as a cumulative 'thumping' of Republicans and conceded that as head of the party, he bore some responsibility. . . .
*_*_*
I saw that press conference. Yes, ‘testy’ is the word.
After Bush conceded, ‘We got thumped,’ a reporter quoted his words back at him to be sure she had them correct. He stopped her and said, ‘It was a “cumulative thumping.” Race-by-race, the differences were minimal.’
Errrrrrrrrrmmm—
Once again, Bush's and my recollections of events differ:
The results were all over the place. There were strongly Red states. There were strongly Blue states. One race I recall [though I can’t remember which] was 71%—29% Democrat. Missouri’s was a minimal race—as was Tennessee. What is amazing is the fact that Missouri has a Democratic senator at all. I’ve lived here most of my life and I don’t recall the last time we had one of those.

So, Bush said the races were close—immediately after saying he and his party had received a ‘thumping.’
Pundits on the right are quick to point out the difference between conservatives and Republicans these days. They have also lined up to say that the races were tight. The majorities were miniscule. Etc.
What only one person has seen fit to mention is that very redrawing-of-the-map that occurred during the GOP watch—despite the best efforts of the Democrats to thwart it.

If you take that injustice into account, the majorities start to look even bigger, don’t they?

3 comments:

TomCat said...

Consider also that in districts with electronic voting machines. there was a mean 4% variance between exit poll data and official results. The variance favored the GOP in all cases. There was no such variance in districts without e-voting machines. The difference between 2004 and 2006 just might be that Rove underestimated 'the math'.

two crows said...

the variance favored the GOP across the board? why am I not surprised?

during the last cycle MO fixed a system that wasn't broke. we had a perfectly serviceable low-tech punchcard system.
it was replaced by TWO separate hi-tech systems -- one of which left a paper trail.
the other was the electronic machines. I wouldn't touch those with a 10 ft pole.
well, actually I woulda touched em -- if I'd had an axe -- but that's all.

TomCat said...

I have nothing against voting machines, as long as there is a paper trail.